The East Gonja Municipal Directorate of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has intensified the public education on the COVID-19 pandemic and its preventive measures among residents in the Municipality.

The exercise was to persuade behaviour change of the people, which was geared towards mitigating the spread of the virus in the area.

It targeted groups at various locations in the area, including, lorry stations, markets, churches, mosques, educational institutions, faith-based organisations and other identifiable locations.

Mr Gariba Sato, East Gonja Municipal Director of the NCCE, led the month-long exercise to educate members of the public on the symptoms and mode of transmission of the virus, and how it could be prevented.

Mr Sato touched on the directives outlined by the government in response to the pandemic, urging members of the public to wear their nose masks when they went out of their homes, avoid crowded areas, frequently wash their hands with soap under running water and sanitise their hands with alcohol-based hand rubs.

He encouraged them to desist from stigmatising people who were infected by the virus, and had been treated and discharged, saying “Stigmatising them will kill their sense of communal belongingness”.

Mr Sato emphasised the importance of adhering to the preventive protocols, adding that it was the surest way the virus could be defeated in the country.